AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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"Hey—come here," Daryl said.

Carol laughed to herself because, in reality, it was Daryl that was coming to her. She was in bed, already tucked in with a book on one of the handheld screens that Kes had showed her how to manage so that she could select and download a great number of books to read from the computer's vast library. She wasn't going anywhere. It was Daryl that came toward the bed and sat down on the edge of it, leaning near her, and dropped the disc into place on her abdomen as she reclined against her pillow.

Immediately, the sound of a rapid little heartbeat filled the air around them. Carol reached her hand toward Daryl, holding the PADD out to the side to allow him more room, and he leaned over her to capture her lips with a kiss. He smiled at her when the kiss broke.

"Our alien's alright," Carol mused.

"Doc said he was," Daryl offered. "But I figured…"

"I like to hear it for myself," Carol confirmed. She didn't move the disc away, and Daryl didn't suggest it, either. They were both content to have the heartbeat of the baby thundering away as the background to their conversation.

"It was amazin' what the hell you done for everybody," Daryl offered. "You know, if it weren't for you…"

"Then Kathryn would've figured out what to do," Carol said. "And B'Elanna would've handled the Kazons that got in her way. They would have handled it if I wasn't there. But I was there so—I did my part."

Daryl somewhat nodded his head.

"I just wanna—make sure you're OK," Daryl said.

Carol sucked in a breath and held it. She didn't want to rush into answering him. She didn't want to give him some knee-jerk response that wasn't accurate. The answer to that very simple question had changed a few dozen times, it seemed, in the span of—how long had it been? A day? Carol wanted to carefully consider her response, because she wanted the answer that she gave Daryl to be the most accurate answer that she could possibly give him.

For just a second, she closed her eyes and smiled to herself as she drank in the sound of the baby's strong and rapid heartbeat.

She breathed out the air that she'd been holding in. The breath seemed to take the last of the tension she'd been carrying. Exhausted, she sunk back into the pillow and yawned.

"I'm fine," she said. "Honestly," she added quickly, when Daryl made an expression that said he clearly didn't believe her. She considered her feelings again and nodded her head. "I mean it. I'm fine. Now. I was terrified. When I thought about those aliens hurting us. I thought about—what they might do to everyone here and I realized…Daryl? I think I realized that I'm really starting to care about the people here. I'm really starting to feel like they're our people."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"They are," he offered. "Our people and our—our Klingons, and our possum-men."

Carol smiled.

"He's a Talaxian, Daryl," Carol said.

"I know," Daryl admitted. "I just like the way your face looks when you're remindin' me of that."

"I couldn't stand the idea of the Kazons hurting any of them," Carol admitted. "I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"You never do," Daryl agreed.

"They were going to take the babies," Carol said. Daryl shook his head.

"Don't'cha make that face," Daryl said. "It's all in the past. It's only what they said. But they're better'n gone now and the baby's still here. You hear it, don't you? Just fine. Never even knew his mama was dissectin' Kazons to get 'em to leave him the hell alone."

Carol smiled. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest. She thought she heard something on the machine, maybe, as it worked to sort out the sounds of her body from the sounds of the life that she carried inside of her. She took the disc, satisfied with the knowledge that the little life was well, and turned it off before she moved it to the bedside table. Daryl's hand, almost immediately, rested where the disc had been only moments before.

"You said 'he,' Daryl," Carol offered. "Does that mean you think he's a boy?"

Daryl smiled to himself and shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe I do," Daryl said. "You said 'baby.' Does that mean you're ready to—find out what he is? Think of him as more than an alien?"

Carol readjusted herself, but she didn't push Daryl's hand away. In fact, she covered his hand with her own.

"I already thought of him as more than an alien," Carol said. "I never thought he was an alien—not since the doctor said he wasn't a parasite. I think, in the beginning, it just made it easier."

"Now you don't need that no more," Daryl said, the words coming out somewhere between a question and an assertion.

"I don't need it, but I still like to think of him as our little alien," Carol said. Daryl patted her stomach, and she drummed her fingers on top of his.

"Then that's OK, then," Daryl said. "You think—you ready to know if he's really a he or if…if he's a she?" Carol's stomach churned and she rearranged herself again. "You gettin' squirmy," Daryl offered. "If you ain't ready, that's fine. It don't matter either way. And you don't have to find out for me. I'm content to just think whatever we're thinking—week to week, even—until the day the doc just hands him over to me for the first time."

"I'm sorry," Carol said. "It's just that—if I think about it too hard? I start to feel…like I can't breathe. I want to know. And I'll be ready…I think I'll be ready soon, but…"

"But you ain't there yet," Daryl finished for her. "And it don't matter a damn bit. I swear it."

Carol sucked in a breath and let it out.

"Holding that baby today," Carol said, "really made me think about…how much I want him."

"You mean—the Kazon?"

"No, our alien," Carol said with a smile. "I meant—just having him in my arms. It made me think how much I miss that. How much I want that. Desperately, Daryl. I want it…so much."

"It won't be too long," Daryl said. "What? Seven or eight months?" Carol nodded her head.

"I want—if you're not opposed to it," Carol said, "I want to do what the doctor offered. Just in case we want to talk about what happens later. Just in case we might want to consider more, and we might need a little help. I know we might not have more and you might not even want more, but…"

Daryl shushed her. He smiled at her. He touched her face and held her eyes with his. Her pulse had picked up. She could feel the drumming in her chest. She could also feel it as it started to slow under the gentle touch.

"I wanna do it, too," Daryl assured her. "If you want to. I mean—it's more your choice than mine."

"No," Carol said quickly. "No. I don't want—mine or yours…or…Daryl? If we're going to do this? If we're going to…" She broke off and laughed to herself over their situation. "If we're going to raise babies on spaceship during our—ridiculously long lives together? I don't want it to be mine or your decision. I want it to be our decision. The whole thing. Everything about it."

"Will be," Daryl assured her. "Mine and yours. We'll just—figure it out together. We're gonna need to do it all together. I sure don't know how to do this on my own."

"Me either," Carol said. "But we'll—do OK together. Right? With all of this?"

"I think we're all ready doin' pretty damned good, woman," Daryl said. "And I'm with you. A hundred percent. Tomorrow, if you want—if you ready? We'll talk to the doc about the whole freezing thing and just find out how it goes. Make a decision from there or go ahead and do it, whatever you want. And—I'm sayin' that just 'cause it's your body, OK? Not like I ain't in this or I won't help you decide or whatever. Just sayin' if you don't feel like it, then we wait until you feel like it. OK?"

Carol nodded.

"Come to bed?" Carol asked.

"I'm comin'," Daryl assured her. "But—as long as we're makin' plans and…this is like the start of a whole thing and all?"

Carol's stomach churned. She felt it tightening like it was tangling around itself. She could sense something coming in Daryl's words, though she didn't know what or even why she could feel it.

"What's wrong?" Carol asked.

"Nothin's wrong," Daryl said. "Just—if they do that kind of thing now, and all…we'd have to ask…but…you think you might wanna marry me? Somethin' official?"

Carol smiled to herself.

"Like a wedding?" She asked. Daryl nodded his head. "You want to officially marry me?"

"Just somethin' for everybody to know it's real," Daryl said.

"I think—I couldn't think of anything that would make me happier," Carol assured him.

"Good," Daryl said, leaning to kiss her again. She gave him the kiss he wanted, and she made it even more than what he specifically requested. She couldn't help but smile at him when he pulled out of the kiss.

"Daryl? Come to bed."

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"Oh—oh! Right there! Oh!" Kathryn declared. Chakotay swallowed down his laughter, but his kneading stopped a moment as he got control of himself. Kathryn sighed.

"You're going to kill me, Kathryn, if you don't stop making all those sounds," Chakotay assured her. "I told you I thought we should take it easy for tonight, but you might have me going against my own better judgement."

"It's just so wonderful," Kathryn said with a sigh. She relaxed into the mattress, and Chakotay returned to kneading her back muscles. There was something wonderful, to him, about having Kathryn Janeway so entirely relaxed—so completely under his control—and knowing that his touch was what had made her that way. "Your hands are magic."

"If you think my hands can work magic," Chakotay teased, "then you ought to see what else I can do."

"I'd love to," Kathryn said, lifting her head just enough to smirk at him. "But you put everything else off limits."

Chakotay laughed to himself. He playfully pushed her head back down so that she'd relax again.

"Until morning, Kathryn," Chakotay said. "Just until morning. I think it's important that you rest a little. And I know you well enough to know that you'll definitely exert yourself if I agree to anything more than just a massage."

"Morning?" Kathryn asked.

"First thing, if you want," Chakotay said.

"Computer," Kathryn said, "let me know when it's 0100 hours."

"Confirmed," the computer announced.

Kathryn grinned somewhat devilishly in Chakotay's direction, but he wasn't going to argue with her. The truth was, he had no desire whatsoever to argue with her. He wanted to be with her more than he wanted most anything else. He still thought, though, that it would be best if she at least got a little rest before she put her body through any more exertion—even if it was exertion that both of them found desirable.

They were in the quarters that Chakotay had called home before he'd moved in with Kathryn. The quarters were comfortable enough for a night, and it was necessary to spend at least one night outside of the rooms they'd been calling their home.

There was a small crew doing clean up in an attempt to return Kathryn's quarters to what they had been before the death of Maje Culluh, Seska, and some number, unknown to Chakotay, of Culluh's warriors. They couldn't work magic, though, and they would need time to clean the quarters.

"I always wanted to have you in my bed," Chakotay teased, working his hands down Kathryn's body and feeling her ribcage under his fingers.

"What did you want to do to me in your bed, Chakotay?" Kathryn asked. Chakotay smiled to himself.

"Ask me that again at 0100 hours, and I'll show you," he said.

"I'll hold you to your word," Kathryn assured him. "Oh—right there…oh…"

Chakotay worked the spot she'd indicated, adding it to his mental list of places to return to as he completed his cycle, time and again, of removing the knots and snares from Kathryn's muscles.

"I think tomorrow we might—tell the crew about the baby," Chakotay said.

Kathryn laughed quietly. Her whole body shook beneath Chakotay's fingers.

"I think everybody knows by now," Kathryn said.

"I don't think that's the case," Chakotay said. "Mostly it was just senior officers that were present."

"Even with everything that was going on, Chakotay, Voyager's a small ship," Kathryn said.

"Nobody said anything to me about it in the cargo bay. Honestly—with everything else going on? We didn't talk about it. It's possible it never even had time to register for anyone," Chakotay pressed.

"And now it'll have plenty of time to register for everyone," Kathryn said. "Before the Delta shift starts, you can rest assured that everyone's going to know."

"You should still announce it, Kathryn. You should make a formal announcement. Tell them everything you wanted to say about—about the fact that we're expecting. That we're thrilled to be announcing this new little life. That we hope that—that our child will find family in every member of Voyager's crew, just like we have."

Kathryn lifted her face to smile at him, sleepily, before she lowered her face again and hummed. She was getting tired. It wouldn't take long before he'd lull her to sleep, and he could tuck her in by gently pulling the blanket over her body. He could know that she was getting the rest that he felt she desperately needed.

"I guess I should make the announcement for everyone," Kathryn said with a soft sigh. "So everyone feels like—they get what they should, right? A formal announcement."

"Maybe it's not even them that I'm worried about, Kathryn," Chakotay said. Kathryn hummed at him in question, and he continued his work, letting his fingers trail over her body and search out points of discomfort and tension. "You're a new mother-to-be, Kathryn, and you deserve to make your announcement—every bit as much as they deserve to hear it. I'm sorry I took it from you at all, but…I did what I thought was best. But, no matter what? Even if you feel like…nobody's listening? Someone will listen. And I want you to have the chance to make your announcement."

Kathryn smiled, this time to herself. She looked too tired—or too relaxed—to lift her head. This time, her eyelids barely fluttered, and they didn't make it open. She sighed.

"You take good care of me," she offered.

Chakotay leaned, pressing a kiss between her shoulder blades before he kissed the side of her face. Her breathing was evening out. Slowly, she was slipping away from him to what he hoped was the sweetest place her mind could create for her. She'd be back with him within a few hours. Until then, he'd be content to spend the time beside her while they both dreamed.

"I try my best," he assured her, almost certain that she was too far away to hear him.